Despite the emphasis the Jaguars are putting on improving their pass rush this year, defensive line coach Todd Wash said Tuesday the Jaguars will stress stopping the run in the preseason opener against Tampa Bay Friday night.

“A big emphasis we want to have is we want to set a foundation of coming out and stopping the run,’’ he said.

“We think they’re going to be a good running team and they’ve got a nice offensive line. They’ve got some real good skill players in the backfield. A point of emphasis for us Friday night is stopping the run,’’ he said.

The Jaguars think that the addition of tackle Ziggy Hood, who will rotate with Sen’Derrick Marks, and the fact that Roy Miller is healthier than he was a year ago, will help their run defense. And end Red Bryant is also stout against the run.

Wash said the Jaguars will play their top eight linemen in a rotation system for about a quarter and a half against the Bucs.

“It’s going to depend on the (Tampa Bay) drives, how long the drives are,’’ he said. That will determine how long he will play the starters.

“We’ll treat it like we have eight up probably for the first quarter and a half because once again we’re going to play a lot of guys. We’ve got some quality depth so they’ll all get in the game in big time situations,’’ Wash said.

The Jaguars also will try to put more heat on quarterback Josh McCown, who will make his debut for the Bucs in the game. He played at Chicago last year.

“We’ve got some more speed and I think that’s important,’’ Wash said.

Two free agents, Chris Clemons and Bryant, will open as the starting ends and they’ll also have three and possibly four “Leo’’ pass rushers on the field at the same time on passing downs.

Andre Branch is the second Leo backing up Clemons and Wash said rookie Chris Smith and Ryan Davis are the third and fourth pass rushers and are battling for the third spot.

“I think we’ll disrupt the quarterback more than we did last year,’’ Wash said. The Jaguars have been last in sacks the past two years in the NFL.

“We’ll use it (more pass rushers) on third down. We might have four Leos in the game. We’re trying to see what the best mix is to disrupt the quarterback and the preseason is the time to do that,’’ he said.

Tampa Bay will probably use a vanilla offense against the Jaguars because new offensive coordinator Jeff Tedford, a long time college coach, said he will probably wait until the third preseason game to show some of the new wrinkles he’s installed in his first shot at running an NFL offense.

Wash is in his second year as defensive line coach under coach Gus Bradley and he wants to get better heat on the quarterback.

“I don’t get caught up in the numbers and that kind of stuff. We’re just going to try to go out every day and obviously try to get better. We know it’s a point of emphasis that we have to be able to disrupt the quarterback. Our players know it. At the same time, it’s not going to add any stress to our job and we’re just going to go out and do the best we can and get better every day and see where the chips fall at the end of the season,’’ Wash said.

Wow! so this is supposed to be the workhorse RB to make everyone forget about Jones-Drew? Dude can't even make it through thru the "rigors" of these soft new wave NFL camps, how's he supposed to handle the rigors of his first 16game NFL season where he, not Adrian Peterson, is the one all defenses are geared up to stop? Once again the bumbling jaguars have been hoodwinked and bamboozled by another greedy free-agent looking to cash in at the Jaguars expense. Guess he got the blueprint from Porter,Sessions,Laurent Robinson,just insert any free-agent here, on how to exploit the Jags' front office no matter who is cutting the checks, but hey he's a white guy so I'm sure this fanbase will give him a pass.